Year 2 of COVID-19: ‘Performers are struggling’
Almost a year ago, the North Coast Repertory Theatre’s production of “Hamlet” was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant economic shutdown. The cast and producers, which still regularly communicate, have been in a holding pattern for the past 50 weeks or so, but are ready to perform as soon as it’s safe to do so, the theater’s furloughed director Calder Johnson says.
“They’re ready and chomping at the bit to put on this show that got postponed indefinitely nearly a year ago,” Johnson said.
Artists and performing arts venues are cautiously optimistic about the second half of the year and the potential for outdoor performances, but in the meantime, they’re continuing to struggle financially. More resources are becoming available for broader segments of the economy, such as the performing arts, through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s shuttered venue operators grant, but artists, themselves, have few resources to turn to.
“Honestly, it’s fairly challenging right now,” Eureka City Councilmember and local artist Leslie Castellano said. “There’s not, especially for performing artists, there’s not a lot available.”
Some grants have been available through the California Arts Council, but Castellano said they’re very competitive and require “a fair amount of administrative work in the application.”
Some people have been able to access unemployment, but most artists had to change their financial strategy, especially individual performers, Castellano said.
“Performers are struggling,” Castellano said.
There is some potential hope for outdoor performances during the summertime if the vaccine rollout goes well, but the artists said it was still too soon to tell and Castellano said more advocacy would need to happen at the state level tomakethatareality.
“It’s easy for people to forget that the arts are an important part of the economy, both locally and statewide,” Castellano said, “and that artists are small businesses but they often have slightly different business structures than someplace with a storefront, for instance, so a lot of the funding programs haven’t been able to reach them.”
Live venue, live performing arts organizations and movie theater operators, among others, are eligible for the shuttered venue operators grant, which prioritizes those who suffered 90% or greater losses because of the pandemic, followed by those who suffered 70% losses, followed by those with 25% losses. The grant application is not yet open and there is no set date yet for when it will become available.
Leila Roberts, director of the North Coast Small Business Development Center, said she’s hoping it’ll launch soon because “it’s
a big deal” for performing arts venues in the county.
“We don’t want our venues to disappear,” Roberts said. “I love that this is nondebt as well.”
Johnson said NCRT would be high up on the priority list because the theater suffered more than 70% loss of revenue because of the pandemic and the grant has more flexibility in how it can be spent than Paycheck Protection Program funding.
It would allow NCRT to hire artists, technicians, designers and others as independent contractors to make art and help prepare
the theater for reopening so “people could actually get paid,” Johnson said.
Jacqueline Dandeneau, director of the Arcata Playhouse, said the playhouse should be high up on the priority list because it went from having an earned income of $130,000 in 2019 to about $5,000 during the past year. However, the grant isn’t without its issues because a theater cannot accept both Paycheck Protection Program funds and grant funds, and the former funding source is more of a sure thing, Dandeneau said.
While the grant program is setting aside at least $2
billion and prioritizing venues with no more than 50 employees for the first 59 days, Dandeneau said there are a lot of urban venues in the mix that fit into that description and with whom rural venues will have to compete.
“I think it’s the first step in many other programs that are going to come out that will support the arts on a grand scale,” Dandeneau said. “Because I think the pandemic has shown us all that we need the arts and that they actually are essential services to our world.”
The playhouse has been able to keep seven artists employed by doing free arts programs in local schools and other outreach and education programs thanks to PPP funding as well as funding from Humboldt County and the Humboldt Area Foundation, Dandeneau said.
As far as performances, Dandeneau said she was considering outdoor performances for the fall because indoor performances wouldn’t be financially viable if occupancy was restricted to 25% nor did she want to contribute to a super spreader event.
“I just don’t know,” Dandeneau said. “It’s still unclear.”
With few other avenues available, artists are using the Internet as a creative outlet and to garner donations that will help them weather the pandemic.
Cooperation Humboldt is putting on Artists Dismantling Capitalism symposium in a couple of weeks. “Only Skin Deep,” has been giving dancers of color the platform to share threeto-five minute dance performances since September and will be part of the symposium’s opening night at 7 p.m. Feb. 26. More information is available at bit. ly/3qo3jll.
Castellano, Johnson and others have been organizing a virtual performing arts round table that will be meeting at 5 p.m. Sunday. Performing artists who would like to participate in the round table can register in advance at bit. ly/3jq16nk.